The development and delivery of learning solutions has become an important component of the services industry. Services companies provide learning solutions to individuals as well as other companies and educational institutions. For example, a company may be required by some legislation to train its employees in some specific subject matter related to the safe operation of various manufacturing or environmental processes. Or an organization may have installed new software for some business process and needs to train employees in its use within the organization. Many other training needs develop and organizations are looking to service providers to fulfill these needs rather than use their own in-house education departments as the sole provider.
Sketch, in patent application US2002/0077884, describes providing learning solutions for eliminating functional competency gaps. An online system is used to assess the level of functional competency and identify at least one gap between the assessed level and a predefined required competency for an employment function. At least one learning solution is identified that is in accordance with a preferred method of learning.
Harkey, in patent application US2002/0087346, describes forming a learning network that includes competencies as well as learning objects and knowledge objects. The nodes forming the network are linked in a particular pattern for each user accessing the network to provide improved response. Data retrieval utilities access external information sources to continuously create new nodes. A query agent accesses a competency node and associated linked knowledge and learning nodes in response to a user query. Each time a user submits a new query a relational table forming the dynamic interconnection of nodes is updated.
Haruhiko et al. in Japanese patent JP2003084653A describe in their abstract a system for supporting cooperative learning. When the system receives a request from a learner client, it specifies the present level of learning and the role of the learner.
In spite of the aforementioned developments there remains a great complexity in the development of learning solutions. In particular, the introduction of newly developed technologies for various new modes of learning has broadened the choices available. Any systematic method of dealing with this great complexity of learning solutions, it is felt, would constitute a significant advancement in the art.